Skills
Skills represent qualities of your character such as how well read or persuasive they are. When a skill check is needed roll a D12 and add the amount invested into the required skill to the roll. Below are some examples of difficulty. 6-Anyone can do it, know who the current mayor is and swim without trouble with still water. 9-Pretty easy for a skilled person, pick a normal lock and notice the sneaky rogue in combat 12-Challenging for most, survive a harsh winter and convince a revolutionary near death to surrender Of course this is relative to the kind of campaign the DM or GM is running. A large Battle Machine would have different skill difficulties than a high elf. A character has 12 points that they can invest into different skills with a maximum of 5 in any one skill. You gain two additional skill points that must be spent on different skills each additional level . Back to Character Creation Athletics In general, this is jumping, swimming, and climbing trees. This skill is used for scaling the embassy, or allows your character to break or squeeze through tight spots. An example of what you can do with a given athletics check is shown below. 6- jump over a 5 ft gap 9- swim without trouble in water 12- climb up a slick smooth surface Cunning These are the practical things a character would know about open locks, disarm traps, steal things, and hack the pentagon. This skill determines how well you can crack the safe or steal the keys of the guard. Knowledge Your character’s ability to know random stuff in any given situation is determined by this skill. An example what could be gained from a knowledge check is shown below. 6-general knowledge (know who the mayor is) 9-basic myths, (know who the mayor is sleeping with) or your character knows a target's utilities. 12-know more facts and where to find more, (Have a good idea where to find the mayor's mistress) or your character knows all target's statistics and utilities and weaknesses and resistances. Perception This represents your character’s ability to see somebody doing something, or see things that shouldn’t be there. You roll a perception check when someone initially hides in combat. You can reroll a perception check instead of an attack on your turn. You roll a perception check if you are tracking a herd of buffalo or looking for that creeping thing in the shadows. Social This is your character’s ability to lie, persuade, or intimidate a resilient target. When you are trying to do any of these things, both you and the target you are trying to influence roll opposed social checks. The Game Master may apply modifiers based on how favorable or unfavorable the situation is to your ability to influence the target. If you roll higher the target is affected favorably. Stealth This is your character’s ability to not get noticed while doing something. You can come into combat hiding if you were not caught unaware or if they did not already know of your presence. However, once you attack or use a utility power you are no longer hidden. Also you are knocked out of hiding if a person tries to move into your square. You may only attempt a stealth check in combat when no one can see you directly or with the Fade Utility Power. Variant Skills Now the skills listed above are part of the original Hodge ruleset created by Caleb Engelke, but there will be many more created by Game Masters in order to better fit the Hodge ruleset into their world. The Variant Skills page is for those rules.